SCARY GOOD sweets

By Gwen Schoen

If you expect a gaggle of goblins to haunt your house later this month, it will help to have a repertoire of tricks and ghoulish recipes close at hand.

We looked around for some party-food suggestions. Here are a few of our favorite sources — and some Halloween tips and recipes.

www.hersheys.com/trickortreats

Even if you aren’t planning a party, check out this Web site just for fun. There’s a lot of advertising on the site, but it’s so clever that it’s fun to read and watch. There are online games and ideas for pumpkin carvings. This is a fun site for the fainthearted. There are cute recipes appropriate for little goblins. There also are decorating and costume ideas.

www.landolakes.com

When it comes to great recipes, one of our favorite sources is Land O’ Lakes, the company that makes dairy products. If you are planning a party for adults, check this site for recipes and menu ideas. There are also cooking videos that are fun to watch, and photos of recipes are an inspiration.

www.kraftfoods.com

Kraft is a great source of recipes that use store-bought products in creative ways. There are also demonstration videos and party decorating ideas.

www.pillsbury.com

The great thing about the Pillsbury site is that its recipes use products that give you a head start. For example, there’s a Halloween pizza made by pressing pre-made sugar cookie dough into a pizza pan, then topping it with Halloween goodies such as candy corn.

www.epicurious.com

This site is an endless collection of recipes. You’ll also find a slide show of recipes and a dozen or more demonstration videos, many with Halloween themes. You’ll find lots of fun party and treat recipes. Among the things we like best are comments from readers about what worked and didn’t, and how they made variations of recipes.

Halloween tips:

UUse dyed coconut to decorate cookies. Place a few drops of food coloring in a plastic food-storage bag. Add coconut and close the bag securely. Shake the bag until the coconut is dyed. Place the dyed coconut on a baking sheet covered in wax paper and place it in a 200-degree oven for a few minutes until it is dried but not toasted.

UTurn olives into a spooky spider on top of your guacamole dip. Cut one pitted colossal olive in half from end to end. Place half of the olive on the dip. Cut another olive into four rings. Cut each ring in half and place the eight pieces next to the olive half to look like legs. Slice the end from another olive and place it on the end of the olive half to look like a head.

UStuff a grape with a chocolate chip so that it looks like an eyeball.

UHollow out tiny pumpkins and use them as ice-cream cups for your party.

UCut the stem end out of a small pumpkin and use it as a candleholder.

UPepperidge Farm Milano cookies make great tombstones on top of Halloween cupcakes. Or create a whole graveyard by pushing the cookies into the top of a cake. Use ready-to-use decorating gel to write “RIP” on cookies.

HALLOWEEN COOKIE PIZZA

This sweet twist on pizza pairs Halloween toppings with a quick-to-bake cookie crust made with Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough.

1 roll Pillsbury refrigerated sugar-cookie dough

1‚Ñ2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup candy corn (optional)

1‚Ñ4 cup semisweet chocolate chips or raisins

1‚Ñ4 cup sliced almonds

1‚Ñ2 cup miniature marshmallows

1‚Ñ4 cup vanilla ready-to-spread frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-inch pizza pan with foil; grease foil. Cut cookie dough into 1‚Ñ4-inch-thick slices and arrange the slices in the bottom of the greased, foil-lined pan. With floured fingers, press slices to form the pizza crust.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes or until it is a deep golden brown. Cool 30 minutes or until completely cooled.

Using the foil lining, lift the crust from the pan. Carefully remove the foil from the crust. Place the crust on a serving platter. Spread peanut butter evenly over the crust. Sprinkle evenly with candy corn, chocolate chips, almonds and marshmallows.

Melt 1‚Ñ4 cup of frosting in small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until thin and of drizzling consistency. Drizzle icing over cookie pizza. Cut into wedges or squares.

Makes 24 servings

SPIDER-WEB DIP

This recipe is quick to assemble with store-bought ingredients. The recipe is from the Land O’ Lakes Web site, www.landolakes.com.

1 jar (16 ounces or 13‚Ñ4 cups) black bean dip

1 container (12 ounces) guacamole

1‚Ñ4 cup sour cream

1 cup shredded lettuce

4 ounces (1 cup) shredded cheddar cheese

1‚Ñ2 cup chopped tomato

Tortilla chips

Spread the bean dip onto the center of your serving platter, leaving 1 to 2 inches around the edge of the platter. Carefully spread bean dip with guacamole.

Spoon the sour cream into a resealable plastic food bag. Snip off the corner of the bag and use the bag to pipe sour cream into four concentric circles on top of the guacamole. Drag a toothpick or knife through the sour cream from the center outward to make a spider-web design.

Layer lettuce, cheese and tomatoes around the edge of the platter. Serve with tortilla chips.

Note: We added a spider made out of pitted colossal olives and a slice of cherry tomato.

Makes 15 servings

HALLOWEEN PARTY POPS

This recipe from the Pillsbury Web site, www.pillsbury.com, calls for refrigerated sugar-cookie dough, which cuts down on prep and leaves more time for decorating.

1 roll Pillsbury refrigerated sugar-cookie dough

16 wooden craft sticks

Assorted decorating sugars and candies

Powdered sugar

Assorted decorating paste or ready-to-use gel icing

Freeze the cookie dough for 30 minutes. Line three cookie sheets with foil. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the frozen dough into 16 slices; roll each slice into a ball. Arrange the balls, six to a cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart and 2 inches from the edges of the sheet. Insert a craft stick into each ball. Bake 10 to 14 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 2 minutes; remove the cookies from the cookie sheet by lifting the foil.

When cookies are completely cool, make a thick paste of powdered sugar and water. Use this paste to glue candies on the cookies. Use candies, paste and gel to decorate the cookies as desired.

Makes 16.

PECAN CARAMEL SPIDERS

The original foodnetwork.com recipe includes homemade caramel. This recipe shortens prep time by using Kraft Caramel Bits.

1 1/2 cups toasted pecans

1 (11-ounce) package Caramel Bits

5 ounces thin black licorice strands, cut into 2-inch pieces

6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped

Chocolate curls or jimmies, optional

Line 2 baking sheets with waxed paper and lightly spray with nonstick spray. Mound 30 small clusters of pecans (about 3 or 4 pecans) each spaced a couple of inches apart on the pan.

Ladle a couple tablespoons of warm caramel over some of the nut clusters, to make the spider bodies. Then press 6 pieces of licorice into the warm caramel to make the legs. Repeat with the remaining caramel and licorice. (It’s helpful to have an extra hand here, since the caramel can set quickly. If caramel hardens, warm over very low heat.) Let spiders cool 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the chocolates in a medium heatproof bowl. Bring a saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water to a very slow simmer; set the bowl over, but not touching, the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally until melted and smooth. Or put the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Melt at 50 percent power in the microwave until soft, about 1 minute. Stir, and continue to heat until completely melted, 2 to 3 minutes more.

Spoon about 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate on top of each spider. Sprinkle with jimmies or chocolate curls, if desired. Let cool until firm.

Makes 30 spiders.